long beach

Extra! Extra! Read some more about it! Another crop of breweries are set to open in Long Beach during 2018! Steady Brew Co. is one such brewery that has taken Long Beach by storm with their first two beers already available in cans. They are currently building their taproom and new brewery location, which will be located on Spring St. and Clark Ave. near the airport.

Steady Brew Co. founders Robert, Dennis, and Aaron realized that they had something good when Dennis, who is an expert home brewer, made a batch of home brewed beer as client gifts for Robert’s fabrication company, Rock Steady (which is where the brewery gets it’s name). Their beer was a huge success and they decided to take that success to the next level. The three began to search for a place to contract brew, originally planning to have their product available only in cans. Although several local breweries wanted to be able to help, Steady Brew wasn’t able to find the right combination of circumstances for contract brewing until the fall of 2017 when they got a generous offer to brew out of Groundswell Brewing in San Diego. The Steady Brew team, being Long Beach local boys, whole heartedly want to have their beer made in Long Beach for Long Beach, so they agreed to accept the offer from Groundswell to get their beer brewing, and began the process of opening their own brewery in order to bring their brewing back to Long Beach.

Both the “Grasshopper” IPA and the “Thirsty Bird” Blonde Ale are available in cans at more than twenty Long Beach liquor stores and bottles shops including Corked at both the Atlantic Ave. and Stearns St. locations, The Bottle Shoppe on 2nd St., Hops & Vines Market on 3rd St., Liquor Land on Long Beach Blvd, and Belmont Heights Liquor on East Broadway. These two beers will continue to be available in cans when their new brewery opens and their taproom will offer a few new brews including the “Pump Jack” American Ale and the “Rocking Horse” Belgian Style Tripel.

Their taproom is opening in “Time Square” along with the Baja Sonora (which will be re-opening in April), the Creative Cakery’s new location (which is currently located on 2nd street and PCH), and there is rumor of a new Ramen restaurant moving in as well, all of which you’ll be able to enjoy in the Steady Brew taproom while you enjoy a freshly brewed beer. Be on the look out for all of these spots to be open by this summer!

Visit their website (steadybrewing.com) for an up-to-date map of bottle shops in Long Beach that offer their Blonde and IPA in cans and follow their Instagram (@steadybrewing) for construction updates and tasting events such as the tasting happening on Friday (3/02/18) at Happy’s Liquor located at Norse Way and N. Lakewood Blvd.

Our 14th meetup brought us into one-year-old bottle shop & bar, Public Beer and Wine on 4th Street and Pine. This downtown Long Beach gem specializes in serving loads of local and national craft beer on tap, with a small but unique bottle selection as well. As a special treat, co-owner and brewer Bobby Fitzgerald of new Costa Mesa brewery Gunwhale Ales brought in some beers for us to try, a variety of hop-forward farmhouse ales and an IPA. It was a great turnout and we had a chance to taste some fantastic beers by Gunwhale. Special thanks to Bobby for traveling out from San Diego to share his tasty brews with us and to Gino and the crew at Public Beer & Wine for hosting our group. Looking forward to seeing everyone at our next gathering soon!

We’re starting to feel a little bit like a broken record, but here comes another new micro – or should we say nano – brewery opening up in Long Beach. Hog Canyon Brewing is about as teeny as it gets and owner Larry Chavez hopes to have the brewery up and running with the taproom open later this summer. The brewery will run on a 1-1/2 barrel system in a small industrial building at 1239 Locust, next to the Long Beach Senior Arts Colony. The name “Hog Canyon” is an homage to the location of the Work Family Guest Ranch, a 12,000-acre family-owned working ranch in Paso Robles, California where Chavez grew up. The tap room will be small, seating about 20 people at a time and Chavez plans to begin serving up some traditional styles, with an emphasis on India Pale Ales, including his 15-45 IPA and a hazy IPA.

With the addition of another new brewery, Trademark Brewing, who recently announced their fall opening just across the way at 233 E. Anaheim (next to the Packard Building), Long Beach’s Washington neighborhood is soon getting an infusion of some serious craft.

Stay tuned for more photos and updates about Hog Canyon Brewing as the build-out continues and date gets closer for opening.

Our 9th MeetUp brought us to Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits in Alamitos Bay. Thanks to everyone that joined us! Thanks to Chris @ BP for giving the group a peek inside the Brewery. As I mentioned in a past blog post, the Long Beach location is the home of Ballast Point’s sour beer program. They have been releasing things here and there, but the real stuff (not that the other’s aren’t real) can take years to ferment. If you take a peek into the brewery, you’ll see barrels stacked inside, that’s where all the longer aging beers are sitting. Those likely won’t be fully ready for some time.

If you’re interested in joining us for our next adventure, CLICK HERE and join our MeetUp Group!

Not only are we a blog/website, we’re also a social group! Join our Meetup Group and join us on our next outing!

The group was only created a few weeks ago and grew to 100+ members. We weren’t expecting it to grow so fast, but since it did, why not meet up?? Our first Meetup happened this past Wed, June 1st at Congregation Ale House and about 20 were in attendance. What an awesome group of people.. Can’t wait for the next one!

A huge THANK YOU to the crew at Congregation Ale House for allowing us to use their patio and for providing us goodies to raffle off! Also, thanks to Nathan from Latitude 33 Brewing out of Vista, CA for joining us and not only providing a hat for the raffle, but also sharing some of their awesome beers with the group. If you haven’t already, you’ll have to pickup their Blood Orange IPA. Check them out at http://latitude33brewing.com/.